Another's Tale
by Yronhand
Summary: The story of a Konoha youth, his tale intertwined in the story of Naruto and his comrades. Shall another Fire of Konoha be born? OC-centric, interwoven with the current manga story. Rated for language.
1. Prologue: Thoughts

**Prologue: Thoughts**

_Hokage-sama, _

_As per your request, a periodic update on the status of our genin teams. As you probably know, the current team I have taken charge of has since become one last genin. The rest have graduated to Chuunin-level, leaving Mizushin Junzo my sole charge until he is either reassigned to another team when a spot opens, or more members are placed under my charge, whichever happens. _

_I have little else to say about his abilities and skills. My brief outline of his abilities has been reported previously, and should easily be accessed in the files. To reiterate briefly, his abilities and ninja techniques as well as working personality is fully acceptable for a chuunin-level ninja. In the field, he is dependable and has thoroughly adequate abilities to fulfill any typical duties that may be required of him at chuunin level. However, the latter part of the report requirement has me to answer the question of what I feel my charge my charge is._

_Who is Mizushin Junzo?_

_That is indeed a most curious question. It is certainly one that I believe would be hard to answer. Like most people of course, Junzo-kun has a wide variety of aspects in his personality that he shows to people. _

_At times he can be silent and rather brooding, but polite if though somewhat aloof nonetheless. He seems to be open-minded enough to listen to most anything people have to say, but with firm stances of his own that he will speak up to defend, but not argue. He can be boisterous and corny, senseless in humor. On occasion he might toe the line of decent topics, but mostly in jest, and he knows when to back off something. An amazing thing about him perhaps, is that he can rebound from most any problematic phase._

_I have to apologize if what I have just said seems to be jumping around a bit, Hokage-sama. But while a touch disorganized, imagine that these words describes him best, if it is somewhat cluttered and vague._

_From all this, you'd probably think he's quite the decent guy! And as I contemplate on this, he is I suppose. Nice enough and with a good heart, especially on the surface. This is not to say that his personality shown, being nice and concerned and all is not sincere. He is sincere about such things, in that I have no doubt. _

_But there are times, especially during his darker moments, which make you think twice about him. Not about his good phase, but I feel that there is quite a bit more to the teenaged student I have then I can perceive. He is quite adept at concealing his thoughts, despite the fact that his emotions are expressive enough. Personally, I think that it is a better shield then being expressionless at times. Or should I say, it is more delicate to handle. Going over this I know there is something more, but I cannot tell quite what it is, or how to deal with it._

_A different air settles down on him in such moments. Most of us have, I think, many levels to our hearts. And in each level of it, we share different amounts of our feelings and thoughts. We have people with whom we share our innermost thoughts and desires. With him, I do not think he has shown any deeper part of himself with anyone. This might be understandable considering his circumstances. But this does not lessen my concern for him any. From what I can tell, the most of himself he has shown, I believe...even I have only seen but halfway through._

_And it worries me. I am after all, his sensei. I would wish to make this report more extensive, but I feel that it should be enough at this point. I have the Chuunin Preliminaries to officiate now. I think I shall bring Junzo-kun with me. It would do him some good to see the new batch trying out for genin._

_Yours truly,_

_Gekkou Hayate, Jounin_

**AN:** Thanks to Authoress Pendragon for the first review. I was actually reading it over, about the "think" stuff. Changed it a bit to tone down on the I thinks. Well, I doubt anyone else would notice, as my entry is rather new as of now. But I do hope that I can finish this fic. I've only completed 1 ever. :) Ah, hopefully I can last. Well, on with the stories!


	2. Chapter 1: Lone Genin

**Chapter 1: Lone Genin**

The sun above shone upon the canopy of Area 44. A dangerous forest, much like many other parts of the deep forest were, though this one was pointedly maintained to be dangerous. And it was for a good reason, as it was a high-level training area and the current location for the latest part of Konoha's latest chuunin examinations.

Junzo yawned as he followed his jounin sensei into the tower that lay at the center of the exam grounds, using the secure passageway from the edge of Area 44's border fence. He lifted a hand to cover his mouth as he walked in. "Oi, stop dawdling!" From ahead of him, the sickly-looking sensei in question called out, raising an eyebrow at Junzo.

"Hai, hai..." The youth answered, stretching out and straightening from his slouch. The genin stepped up his pace as he moved faster to meet the jounin who was already ascending the stairs.

The genin grumbled, slightly annoyed at having to come to this when it was supposed to be a free day for him. Also since he had absolutely nothing to do with this year's chuunin exams. Nonetheless he ran up the stairs to catch up with Hayate. He managed to reach him just as his sensei started to push open a doorway, holding it open with one hand. "Took you long enough," he said as Junzo shrugged in reply. The pair entered the room, revealing a wide arena, with the Hokage and a few other jounins gathered at one end, and the center mostly occupied with the teams that had passed the second exams. Hayate nodded at Junzo, who responded in silence as they separated.

A short while later, Junzo stood aside on one of the observation platforms that overlooked the preliminary battlefield. He stood off to the side, alone, watching as the new bunch of genin were debriefed. He had to admit that he was excited somewhat now that his irritation had worn off. He always enjoyed a good fight, and enjoyed it more if he was in the fight. Although, he didn't take the current exam cause of his lack of a team, he was looking forward somewhat to seeing what he might have been up against. The teenaged genin blinked and shrugged, running a hand through his mussed up black hair. _No wonder I was brought along, Hayate-sensei is officiating this all._

He wondered idly if he should've worn something more of a uniform. _Nah._ He decided a moment later. He looked back down to the genins, and discovered that the fight pairing was beginning. _They're so young!_ He realized, as he looked to see the majority of them. Most of the ones who'd made it were barely into their teens, surely no less then twelve but no older then fourteen for most. Except for the two curiously old-looking ones, and the Sand genins, he was quite sure about the ages of the rest. A slight pang shot through his heart at the sight. He raised a hand up, looking at it.

_How old am I? I'm...ugh. _He shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

Here he was, practically fully grown. But, yet he was barely much more at heart then the young teens. Probably less focused and mature, at that. _Damnit, Hayate. _He sighed and shook his head. _Don't you know I hate this kind of thing?_ He grit his teeth, both in annoyance and resignation. _But true, unfortunately._ He lifted his eyes back up to look over at the young genin who were now climbing, leaving two standing. Junzo recognized one of them, Uchiha Sasuke, the lone survivor of his clan's massacre. _He's only twelve isn't he?_

_Damn._

* * *

The red light of the sunset colored the sky above as it did day by day, painting the Hokage monument with shades of crimson shadowed against the coming dusk. Junzo way lying on his back atop the flat of the mountain, a feeling of frustration and some despondency settled around him in a heavy air. The young man grumbled softly, shaking his head, and moved to a sitting position as he turned to look at the other with him. 

"Hayate-sensei?"

The sickly-looking man turned to look towards his sole remaining charge, a curious look on his face. "Mmm? What is it, Jun-kun?" He spoke, coughing into one hand a bit, before sitting up.

The pair were relaxing for the day, sitting on a part of the mountain that the Hokage Monument had been carved into, gazing over the city. Junzo sighed and looked over his sensei of three years. "I know you aren't all that much older then me, but do you think I'm immature?" He spoke softly. "I mean, I'm getting quite older and I still feel like I haven't really changed since…" He paused and continued, "I saw those young genin today, they seem so strong at heart..." his voice trailed off at the end.

The jounin examiner looked curiously at the youth, eyeing him carefully. He spent a moment in silence, then replied. "Tch, I'm almost a decade older then you. I think that counts for something. But..." He ran a hand through his hair a bit, fixing the head protector with the Konoha band. "Mmm, I think that being mature or immature is a very complicated thing. We can be mature in many small ways, or in a few major ways." He paused to look at Junzo, thinking carefully over his words as it was times like these that his charge seemed most delicate to handle. "Don't worry. You still have time to change, Jun-kun. It's hardly too late for you. I'm sure you have a great destiny to fulfill in your life."

Junzo's eyes closed at that, and his figure seemed to sag as he leaned on the rock behind him, sitting on the ground. Hayate's eyes flickered in uncertainty and concern for a while, and tentatively reached out to pat the genin on his shoulder. Junzo's dark eyes opened and he turned to the jounin. A slightly sorrowful half smile appeared on his lips, as he murmured, "Will you help me?"

Hayate was a bit surprised at this and for a moment he froze up. Those words were, curiously enough, ones he had not expected to hear from the rather secretive and closed genin. It was both the words he feared to hear, and hoped he would hear from him. A weak smile of his own blossomed on his face, despite a cough or two. "Heh. Of course. I'm your sensei after all." He managed a chuckle, as Junzo's smile turned into a soft, if brief, laugh of his own. He gave the boy another pat on his shoulder, then he rose from where he was sitting. "So, why don't we keep going on practicing your jutsu eh?"

The genin nodded once, with vigor, as he stood up. "Hai! Let's do that." A slightly wavery tone accompanied his voice, then he cleared it, and spoke again. "Let's do that."

"Yosh." Gekkou winked at his young friend and student, giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "Come on, you still have to perfect the _Mikazuki no Mai_ I've been trying to teach you!" The two moved off into the twilight, their voices fading into the distance.

Days pass as they were to pass, time slipping and moving, waiting for none. But in those few days since, the young man named Mizushin Junzo had spent his time well. Much to Hayate's relief, he had finally opened up somewhat and found a trustworthy friend in his sensei, and proved a steady progress with a new determination. It was rather unfortunate, he thought, that Junzo didn't have a team that could bring out his worth as an intelligent and skillful ninja, denying him the chance to perform well that year. But he was sure that in the exams to come, his student would prove most formidable. _I'd pit him up against any of those genius rookies._ The thought rang true in his mind, knowing he made the right choice in petitioning the Hokage to reassign Junzo to an appropriate team.

A sudden stroke from that student brought him back to the present, whom he fended off with a quick motion of his katana. His attack foiled with a counterstroke from Hayate, Junzo sped from tree to tree, leaping off one trunk to another in rapid acrobatic moves. A flash of light appeared from above him, and he barely reacted in time to flip the kodachi he held to block the incoming strike of Gekkou's katana. The ill-looking man was certainly anything _but_ sickly in a fight or training session.

The genin grunted as the strength behind the attack pressured him, his feet sliding downwards slightly along the tree trunk he stood on. Another grunt escaped his lips as he forced the jounin back, who quickly somersaulted back into the shadows of the moonlit night. Junzo spared no time moving around as well, trying to get the initiative and attack his sensei. Flashes of light, reflecting off the two blades as they clashed time and time again filled the trees, with Junzo coming off just a bit more pressed each time they exchanged series of strikes. _Damn, looks like I'm not fast enough yet to fight him with simple taijutsu alone. _

Hayate launched yet another furious attack, keeping the genin once more on the defense though he managed a few quick counter strokes. With that latest assault, Hayate vanished into the dark woods. Junzo couldn't detect his presence, much to his own chagrin. Raising his left hand to his face and breathing in deeply as he summoned forth his chakra. He focused on the darkness around him, concentrating as he blocked out everything but his hearing senses. _There!_ A faint rush of sound came to life behind and above him, and his eyes flashed open the instant he detected it. The kodachi in his hand immediately rose to respond, and the clink of two blades resounded in the almost silent forest.

"I was wondering when you'd try for that." The jounin murmured softly with a smile, knowing well that Junzo could easily hear his whisper from where he was. "But having refined hearing alone isn't going to be enough, as good as you are with it." A small smile flickered over his lips and the jounin leaped away to another branch. Hayate let the katana in his hand drift to the side as he brought up one hand of his own. Junzo's eyes narrowed as he recognized what the jounin was about to do and quickly summoned his own chakra to permeate his body, coiling up to be unleashed.

Two voices called out, one a split second behind the other, "_Mikazuki no Mai!"_

The two forms blurred and shadowed into three each, and six figures filled the small area where there was once two. Hayate's eyes widened in mild surprise at seeing that. _Three illusions now? _There was a furious exchange of blows before the shadowy figures coalesced back into their original figures. Hayate stood behind Junzo, who was kneeling on the tree branch they were on, his katana resting on the genin's shoulder as its edge glimmered near the younger ninja's neck. "Too slow."

"Too confident." Junzo breathed out heavily, a small smile appearing on his own lips. Gekkou closed his eyes and sighed, then glanced down to see the kodachi's tip shine as it pointed up near his thigh.

"Another suicidal draw? You should know better then that. Tch." The tone of the voice and small smile on his face however took much away from the words, as the jounin stepped back and allowed Junzo to stand. "Still, you've been improving. Not bad." He paused then sheathed the sword behind him, and reached into his pocket with another. "You've practically mastered the normal level of Mikazuki no Mai, so I guess this is fine to give to you."

A pair of scrolls flew through the air towards Junzo, who caught the two in his left hand. "What's this?" He asked, a curious expression on his face as he sheathed his kodachi in its sheath at the small of his back. He looked at the scrolls and noticed that they had been bound with sealing jutsu. He looked back up at Hayate who shrugged.

"You can unlock the seals, just trace your blood over them." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't know what's in them either. I was just told to give them to you when I thought you could handle more advanced jutsu." He chuckled softly and glanced at Junzo. "Since you mastered Mikazuki no Mai, I figured anything at genin or chuunin level would be easy enough for you." He paused in quiet for a moment, as a last thought echoed silently in his mind. _And since I'm going to be off on a special mission soon._

Junzo didn't notice the slight shift on Hayate's face, as he pricked a finger with a kunai and traced it carefully over one of the seals. A puff of smoke and chakra came from the first scroll, and the formerly small piece suddenly exploded with another larger cloud of smoke into a scroll that was easily over two feet wide, though it was still unopened. "What the?"

"Heh, couldn't wait till you got home eh?" Hayate shook his head and stepped closer to the scroll which Junzo was opening. The youth frowned at it, as it revealed nothing more then a list of names written down with handprints on them.

"Nani? What the heck is this...?" The genin eyed the peculiar thing.

"Ooh, it's a Summoning Contract." Hayate spoke in no little amount of curiousity, as he squatted opposite Junzo by the scroll. "Let's take this to the ground first, mmm?" He nodded at his student, who shrugged and rolled it up, then followed his sensei quickly to the forest floor. He placed it down and unfurled it again, looking at it curiously as he tried to figure out what it was. Junzo hadn't to wait long before the jounin coughed and began to explain.

"Mmm, now let's see. Summoning jutsu. You know about that right?" He asked Junzo.

"Yeah. It's a special jutsu where the user summons forth an animal spirit to his side, because of a special agreement with a certain type of animal spirit." He eyed the scroll. "You said this was a Summoning Contract." A spark lit up in his eye and he glanced up at Gekkou. "I wonder what I can summon with this! Hehe!" A small smile flashed across his face as he rolled it open a bit more to a blank space, and nipped a finger. He began writing down his name on the scroll with his finger in his blood. Once that was done, he spread the blood over the rest of his fingers to make his handprint on the scroll.

"Okay. Let's see how this works..." Junzo mumbled as he rolled the short sleeve of his shirt up and let his thumb bleed a bit more. _Let's see. The seals are_ _Boar, Dog, bird, Monkey, Sheep_. He breathed in and focused his chakra as his hands moved carefully from seal to seal, fulfilling the basic method of summoning. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" He barked as he slammed his hand on the grass, channeling his chakra through to his hand and outwards into the jutsu. His chakra glowed outwards onto the ground, forming the seals of summoning and a puff of smoke erupted from the ground.

Hayate jumped backwards a bit, wary of what might have been summoned out as the smoke cleared slowly. As the last bits faded, all he could see was Junzo sitting on the ground, sprawled from the explosion of force from the summoning. He sighed and shook his head. _Well, I guess it was too much to hope that he'd pull that one off properly the first time around._ He looked around as the student righted himself, sputtering a few choice words to voice his frustration.

"Shimatta!" Junzo cursed, sighing and getting up again. He began to relax again and try the summoning again when Hayate shook his head.

A hand quickly stopped Junzo from trying again, and he looked up to Hayate who shook his head. "No, that's enough for tonight. We've been sparring for a while now, and I had you perform the jutsu we were working on for you. I doubt you have much chakra left to summon anything."

The genin exhaled and nodded, just then feeling the exhaustion of hours worth of training and jutsu practice falling heavily on him. "H-Hai..." He managed and nodded. He took one more breath then moved to close the scroll up again. He tucked the scroll in under an arm and nodded. "Well..." He scratched his head and looked up at Hayate with a weary half-smile. "Can I have some miso and yakisoba?"

The jounin rolled his eyes in a sigh and shrugged. "Eh, fine. You did good today. Come." He gestured with his head towards the lights of Konoha's main village area. Junzo nodded, and with another breath leaped away into the trees to make his way back. Gekkou leaped up after him in a moment and began to catch up with Junzo when an odd feeling entered his field of senses. He paused suddenly, a suspicious expression crossing his face for a moment as he concentrated. The chakra presence had vanished almost as suddenly as it had been felt, barely even so.

"Oi! Sensei!" The voice of Junzo broke his focus, and he saw his student waiting for him with his arms crossed. The jounin spared on last scan behind him and shrugged it off as he leaped forward again towards Ichiraku.

* * *

A distance back behind the two vanishing shapes of the Konoha ninjas, hidden in the darkness, gazed two reptilian eyes. _That was close._

The cloaked figure smiled slightly, the faint moonlight just enough to paint its face as its face spread into a fanged grin. The slit eyes blinked as a claw caressed the hilt of a tanto. "Hoho...Tokage-isshou, It seems after this long while we have someone interesting again, hoho…" The voice faded as the figure shifted silently erupted into smoke.

* * *

**Note:** Hi guys! Well, this is my 2nd chapter. I was thinking about making it longer, but I felt that I should just go with shorter chapters instead, and save the big ones for more climactic moments. In any case, I need a bit of help. How the heck do you do those double spaces! Xx For some darned reason, whenever I upload something, my double spaces vanish! Hence I have to use those funny lookin' lines to designate POV/scene changes.

AN: Second note…I polished this chapter a bit, added a few things to make it look smoother and slightly meatier. Basically buffed it up with an extra page. As always, R&R.


	3. Chapter 2: Temporary Measures

**Chapter 2: Temporary Measures  
**

"You must have said something. Come on, tell me what you said!" Junzo hissed at Hayate, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead, showing quite obviously his unease at the situation.

The Jounin raised an eyebrow at the genin beside him, who was drawing a curious stare or two from the ninja staff who worked in the administration building as they made their way through its halls upwards to the Hokage's office. "Tch, I told already what I said." He sighed and shrugged as he repeated the short of it, "All I said was that you seemed to be ready for a new team and with one you could make the next Chuunin Exams."

It was primarily what he'd said when he passed his report personally to the Hokage, as the Hokage did always request such whenever it concerned the genin of Konoha, despite the fact that there were literally some hundreds of the youths. But if the Sandaime was to be accused of anything, it was a genuine concern over the generations after him. He reflected on the meeting some days ago, as it was also when the Sandaime handed him the two curious scrolls that he'd been helping Junzo with ever since he'd opened it a few days ago.

The man coughed as his charge walked along a bit behind him, mumbling on softly. He had no idea why the Hokage had the scrolls for Junzo in the first place, or why he wanted to meet the youth. Junzo was certainly quite skilled and had potential to be one of Konoha's better ninjas, but the request was somewhat out of the blue. He glanced back at Junzo and thought again on the two scrolls that the Hokage had handed to him earlier on in the week. One thing was for sure, the old goat knew something about Junzo, much more then he let on. _Secrets on secrets, eh?_

Hayate sighed softly, drawing a wary look from the genin in question, as the two stepped up in front of the Hokage's office's double doors. They opened suddenly as a jounin stepped out, holding some papers in his hands. Hayate exchanged a nod with him, recognizing the man as Raido, who was one of those who served as the Hokage's aides on a more regular basis. The jounin glanced curiously at Junzo and turned his eyes to Hayate meaningfully, who replied with a simple look of "beats me."

The Hokage was old, but he was hardly dulled much by it, considering his age, and he managed to catch Hayate through the doors as they swung. "Ah, Gekkou Hayate. Please, come in!"

Raido shrugged and moved off to continue his job, as Hayate turned to Junzo who had a slightly nervous and concerned look on his face. It was obvious that the genin wasn't comfortable too much with attention. Hayate coughed, and pushed open the door, motioning for Junzo to come along behind him. The genin quickly fixed the Konoha cap on his head and took a quick second to make sure he had his Konoha band strapped on securely around his arm before he followed Hayate inside.

Sarutobi smiled amusedly at Hayate and his charge. It was his first time to meet Junzo face to face in such a formal setting as his office, although he'd certainly kept track of the curious youth as he did with quite many of the Konoha genin of rather interesting situations. "Come, come...don't feel too nervous, Mizushin Junzo. Just think of me as just another old man, mmm? Well, more or less anyway." The old man winked at the genin, chuckling softly as he tapped his pipe.

The genin managed a small smile and nodded weakly, though he was still a bit wary of the old man, despite the rather unexpectedly warm greeting. "H-hai, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage nodded slowly as he thought, and after a moment or two of silence as he took a quick puff on his pipe, he addressed the genin once again. "Hayate-sensei here has told me quite a bit about you." Junzo kept silent but shot a glare at Hayate, who ignored it pointedly. The Hokage smiled again, then continue on. "Your progress has been quite good recently, excellent. He has requested me to include you into a genin team in the near future. He seems quite free with his words that it was a shame you could not compete with the rather _unique_ cast of genin we have in this examination."

"My sensei overestimates me, Hokage-sama..." Junzo spoke up immediately, barely an instant passing from when the Hokage's words seemed to trail off.

"Ah-ah!" The Hokage shook his head, raising a finger in a no-no gesture. "I admire initiative young one, but in this case I have to say that perhaps you underestimate yourself. I am not saying you could easily match up with those competing for Chuunin in this exam, but I am not downplaying you either. I do however agree with Hayate-san here, that with experience on the field in a team you could perform quite agreeably." The Hokage smiled at that. "After the Chuunin exams, I would think." He turned to look at Hayate, who nodded slowly in affirmation.

"Well then, that settles it I think. After the Chuunin exams finish you can start looking forward to a team to train with, although it will be under a new sensei. I assume Hayate has not told you about this yet?" The Hokage added the latter at seeing a flash of surprise cross Junzo's face. "I have just assigned him to a rather important mission, which he must leave you to accomplish."

"H-hai." Junzo replied simply, a hint of concern flickering through his eyes.

"Hmm..." The Hokage took in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. After a moment of thought he stood up from his seat and walked over to the balcony that overlooked Konoha. He nodded at Junzo, motioning for the genin to come over to him. Junzo glanced at Hayate, who shrugged, eliciting another glare from Junzo before he walked over to step up beside the Hokage.

Sarutobi took a good look over it all, his gaze finally resting on the Hokage monument to the side. "Jun-kun, if I may call you that?" The Hokage look over to Junzo, waiting for the youth to reply. He did so with a slightly hesitant nod. "Ah, good. Well, Jun-kun, I have to ask you, how has your experimenting with the scrolls gone?"

Junzo paused in mild surprise for a moment, before he coughed to clear his voice and speak. "Ah, well the first scroll I opened with Hayate-san some days ago during training. It was a Summoning Contract, although for some reason I haven't been able to summon much." His voice clearly showed a tone of frustration at that. The Hokage looked at him curiously, but kept quiet his tongue and simply nodded.

"How about the second scroll? I assume you've gone over that one." The Hokage looked at Junzo.

Junzo shrugged and nodded. "Ah, yes. Its rather interesting. It features quite a bit on a form of taijutsu which works with chakra. Hayate-sensei has been training me with it as best as he can, but he's no master of it so it makes it hard to teach. Personally, I've never heard of it before, this Kyokuken style." The youth shrugged and ran a hand over his cap. "I've done some research on it, but I haven't come up with anything."

"Hoho, and I would be surprised if you would." The Hokage chuckled softly, which drew Junzo's attention. "You see, that form of fighting was a style that was invented by your grandfather and was refined by your father during the ninja wars over a generation ago." A flash of surprise once again. The Hokage coughed and raised a hand to stop Junzo from speaking at that moment. "I am sorry Jun-kun, truly. But I have spared as much time as I could have right now. I have to save the story of your father for another day. Perhaps when you join your new genin team, I might be able to tell you more...?" The Sandaime smiled warmly at that last.

"Oh, okay. But I'll hold you to your promise, Hokage-sama." Junzo spoke, a hint of a smile on his face, touched with some disappointment, but not without a hint of interest and hope.

"Very good! Now before you leave, I have a few more things for you to read." The Hokage chuckled as he turned back inside towards his desk. He walked behind it and let his eyes scan over the scrolls that lined the low shelves behind the desk, and in a few moments pulled out two scrolls. One of them was sealed once again with a special jutsu, while the others were tied up simply with string. The Hokage set them on his table and nodded at Junzo and Hayate to close.

"All right, these are the last I have for you. This particular sealed scroll, and even I have no accurate knowledge of its content, was another thing from your father. If I remember right, you should be able to unlock it once you have reached a certain level of mastery in your Kyokuken training." The Hokage pushed it towards Junzo, then moved onto the other two. "This one..." He touched the blue scroll, "has a few Suiton-jutsu, a memento of your mother, whom I have little knowledge of." He looked at Junzo evenly. "The sealed one here is something more on Kyokuken, useless without the primary scroll of course, but necessary to master the true power of Kyokuken. Or so I was told. It's the only thing I know about it." The Hokage cleared his throat then as his office doors once again opened up to reveal another jounin carrying some reports. "Well, I have to go to work now. I shall see you some time, mmm?" He nodded once at Junzo and Hayate, who each made their farewells, and left.

The jounin deposited the reports on his desk shortly after Junzo and Hayate had left, and after delivering a brief oral report of his own departed with the Hokage's dismissal. Sarutobi wrote down a few notes on the reports, reading them and scribbling down as was appropriate. After a few moments he shook his head, and while continuing to write said, "I still don't understand why you won't show yourselves to him. Or maybe it was just his unfortunate luck to have summoned _you_ first, maybe?"

A chuckle filled the air as a curious looking creature appeared in front of Sarutobi's desk in a half-crouch. "Mmm, so you sensed me. I'm not surprised though, you are the Hokage after all." The reptilian-looking summoned beast eyed Sarutobi. "I suppose you're right though, I've had enough time to watch him. He seems dependable enough."

The Hokage nodded, writing along as he moved one sheet of paper to another stack. "That's nice. I do hope you aid him as much as your kind did for his father." The creature chuckled softly in reply and vanished once again just as Raido opened the doorway to deliver another sheaf of reports.

"Hokage-sama?" The ninja asked him, having sensed another presence in the room just prior to his entering. The Hokage waved him off and motioned for him to add the new bunch to the pile of reports.

_Ah, endless papers. _

* * *

"You know, the Sandaime seems to be a rather approachable Hokage..." Junzo laughed to himself, as the feeling of having to face the leader of Konoha wore off him. He took his cap off and fanned himself with it as he and Hayate sat once again on their curious spot on top of the mountains of Hokage monument.

Hayate sighed at that, which turned into a few coughs. He let himself recover from that for a bit, then shrugged. "Well, I did tell you not to worry. The Sandaime is a good man and he loves the village as much as anyone. That's why he's the Hokage after all, you know."

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Junzo mumbled and shrugged. He grew quiet for a short while more, then turned to Hayate with a lopsided smile. "Hey, hey, why don't we go train again? This Kyokuken thing is kind of cool. I bet that once I get the hang of it, combining it with your family's swordsmanship would be just awesome huh?" The genin's eyes almost seemed to glow with anticipation at that.

Hayate coughed into his hand, and allowed a smile to flicker across his face. "Heh, yeah, well you have quite a way to go. If you want to get strong fast, you have to train hard and well." He shrugged and looked at Junzo. "I suppose I won't have to hold back in training you anymore."

Hayate chuckled amidst a cough or two, as Junzo reacted with a look of disgust and threw a glare his way, ending up with him rolling his eyes. _His parents huh? Its been a while, I almost forgot that he never really knew his parents, being without them for most of his life._ Hayate stood up and dusted himself, taking a step towards the steep mountainside that would prove the shortest way to their favored training site. "Well, let's go?"

"Race you." The genin smirked at Hayate, a somewhat cool and cocky expression crossing his face. Hayate raised an eyebrow at that, and shrugged. A tense air rose up between them for a moment, before the pair suddenly burst into action. Hayate shot down the steep mountainside, his chakra making his footsteps on the mountain solid and firm as he ran at a headlong rush. He dared a glance at Junzo and almost launched into a series of coughs as he saw the genin slide down the side of the mountain. He was using his chakra as a brake, instead of making it stick, and made his way down almost in a half-controlled freefall.

The genin was certainly heading down at a ridiculously fast rate, and Hayate stepped up the pace to keep up with him. "Junzo! What the hell do you think you're doing!" The jounin barked out at the genin, who had by now went out of hearing range, much to his dismay. "Kuso!" His eyes widened slightly as the genin reached the mountain bottom and stopped with a rather large dust cloud forming from where he'd landed. Fear constricted his heart for a moment until he saw the gray-blue clad form of Junzo erupt from the cloud at a run. He landed a second or two after and glanced at the spot where his genin had landed.

_Hmm?_

He took a moment to look it over, the sign of his impact being a completely uniform crater mark. Spider web cracks originated from the center, but besides that there were no uneven features in the impact crater. He glanced upwards to the long trail that had marked his genin's passing and shook his head, before turning around to run after him.

Hayate caught up with him a short while later, arriving to see the genin standing with his arms crossed. The jounin simply shook his head and gave him a stern glare as he landed smoothly on the ground in front of him. The genin fidgeted after a moment or two under those eyes and sighed. "All right, I'm sorry." Hayate nodded a moment later in approval.

"What happened to you, you're usually not so impulsive in that manner. No, nevermind that." He shook his head almost as soon as he'd finished and instead turned to look at Junzo. "So, was there a reason you did that?"

"Well actually yes, there was. I was kinda practicing the new form of taijutsu in the scrolls." The genin shrugged and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I just got so gung-ho over it, I assure you I'll be more focused on its application next time around."

"Fine. The least you can do is tell me what exactly you were doing with that stunt."

"Oh sure, no problem. I'm not quite sure why, but its in the scroll. Kyokuken is a taijutsu style that incorporates using chakra auras over, within, and under the person's skin layer." Junzo began, reciting the brief description written on it, though Hayate had already heard that part the last time. "Oh, sorry. Ah, the exercise basically was practicing how to channel my chakra through a variation of the tree-climbing technique. Instead of holding me firmly, I had to develop enough control and refine it so it would just slow me down instead of stopping me and holding my to the surface. At the same time, it was meant to force me to focus chakra into my skin as well so it wouldn't be damaged from the heat and the friction, and as such negate any possible damage from the slide down."

"Lastly, the impact served the purpose of making me generate enough force to counter act the fall. I basically slammed my fists into the ground, and with the aid of the chakra running through my skin and body, the shock from the impact was evenly distributed straight into the ground." Junzo took up a deep breath after that, and paused for Hayate.

"I see. You could've practiced that in another manner you know."

"I know." The youth replied with another sigh. He shrugged and patted the scroll in his side pocket. "But still, from what I can tell, Kyokuken is standard high-power and speed taijutsu, only that it reinforces things with chakra and refines a person's ability to use chakra and infuse it into his very skin as a fine aura to make it stronger. "

"Which is quite useful, I remind you. Not having to use an elemental force, like sand, makes that technique rather useful. It's like having an armor of chakra, despite being bound to your skin." The jounin shrugged. "Better to not let your foe get the chance to hit you, or get hit by an enemy in the first place though."

"Yeah, well..." Junzo shrugged and was about to say something else when his vision suddenly blurred, as if he'd suddenly been plunged underwater. He blinked and shook his head, raising a hand to clutch the side of his head as a tremor of disorder surged through his body, and cool feeling blossoming from his shoulder. The moment passed quickly enough, he shook it off in a moment.

Hayate quickly closed and touched his head and the shoulder. His eyes narrowed at that, and shook his head. "Another one? You would do best to have this examined you know. I thought you were going to ask the Hokage about this. You had the chance before you know." The jounin eyed Junzo as he withdrew his hand from his charge.

"Ah, well...its all right. It never really bothers me anyway." The genin waved it off as he breathed in once again, and gave Hayate his patented half-smile. The jounin sighed, and coughed once again into his fist.

"Fine, fine. But the next time you have to go see one of the village's Seal jutsu experts on that." Hayate shrugged. "I'm fair enough as things go, but your tattoo is quite a curiosity. A resonance of chakra comes from it, you know?" Hayate scratched the top of his head in irritation. "Tch. Well, never mind that. Let's get started shall we?" He turned to look at Junzo who nodded in agreement, his half-smile shifting to show just a bit of confidence come through.

The pair stood where they were for a moment, Junzo eyeing Hayate intensely as he brought forth his chakra to infuse his body once again, heightening his strength and reflexes as the energy of his body and spirit echoed to enervate himself. The smile on his lips grew just a bit, which did not go unnoticed by his sensei.

_Oh?_

An instant later, two small craters and swirls of dust were all that remained of where they had been standing, the forest immediately filled instead with the sounds of steel and the staccato sounds of feet on wood as the pair launched into another one-on-one duel.

Hayate was quite impressed with Junzo's progress. The training over the past few days in this Kyokuken had truly enhanced the genin's chakra control. The basis of Kyokuken was quite similar to basic short-term chakra enhancement of specific body parts to increase speed and power, true. But it took it one step further in applying it in a more controlled and efficient manner, in manifesting chakra throughout the body and containing it within the skin and muscle systems. _A truly formidable hijutsu._

He grit his teeth as Junzo launched yet another series of slashing attacks at Hayate, who was actually being pressed back beneath the genin's rapid assault. The kodachi in Junzo's hand blurred in its speed, and Hayate was finding it somewhat hard to keep up with him with his katana. The jounin was still by far the more experienced though, and seeing his student perform a strike that was just a split second too long in recovering, he spun and turned the attack around.

A particularly strong strike later, and Junzo somersaulted away, leaping from tree to tree. Hayate followed him as the genin leaped upwards in angles, and dodged a falling branch that Junzo had sent downwards to him, which he simply slashed out of his way. He'd finally caught up with him and launched a thrust with his blade upwards, which Junzo just barely deflected as he spun upside-down from a tree branch. The smile on his lips was all the warning Hayate needed however, and he moved away and spun to avoid sudden attack by yet another Junzo. _Kage bunshin?_

Hayate was not too surprised. After all, his Mikazuki no Mai did use a variation of Kage Bunshin, despite being primarily a taijutsu-based attack which demanded speed as well as ninjutsu. Figuring out how to accomplish Kage Bunshin from that was hardly a shock. The clone frowned at missing and promptly vanished however, making Hayate rethink things over.

_It seems its still not a real Kage Bunshin just yet. He doesn't know the full seal sequence or the proper chakra molding forms for it, so he makes do with the temporary ones that are a part of Mikazuki no Mai._ The jounin reflected this as he skipped away from Junzo to pace himself again, before heading back into the fight, as Junzo seemed to pause for a while as well. Hayate let a smile appear on his lips, seeing his charge begin to tire from the fight and from the slight but constant drain of chakra he was using with Kyokuken to keep up and match Hayate's speed.

"Oi, Junzo! If you can get me with your next move, I'll make sure that the Hokage gets me as your sensei again." Hayate nodded at Junzo, coughing slightly again. He saw the mild surprise in Junzo's eyes, who replied with a nod of his head and a grin of his own. It was easy to see what came next, as the two prepared to unleash the one move that had been much of the focus of their training until the scrolls.

_Mikazuki no Mai!_

The genin breathed heavily as he waited, summoning all the speed and strength he could muster to match Hayate's. An echo of chakra resonated throughout his body from the tattoo on his shoulder, but in tension of the moment before the unleashing of the storm it went unnoticed. _I'm not losing!_

Junzo and Hayate each blurred into three forms at that moment and clashed in a brief, but furious exchange of blows. A cloud of smoke appeared around the pair on the right, as the rest vanished, the clones that they were. A grin appeared on Junzo's lips as it cleared, revealing Junzo positioned in a low stance, holding the edge of his blade along Hayate's abdomen, with his sensei's katana having missed him completely, having managed to dodge low enough to avoid it.

"Heh..." He spoke, as the weariness of using the intense burst of chakra overtook him. "I guess I won this time, sensei." He managed to say somewhat weakly, but triumphantly. Hayate chuckled softly at that and shook his head.

"Gomen, Jun-kun." Hayate murmured as he erupted as well into smoke, much to the genin's surprise. The tip of a katana rested once more on the genin's shoulder, which made the youth grit his teeth in annoyance, biting back a nasty word. "Didn't you remember what I just said? Better to avoid a blow in the first place, mmm?" He removed the katana from Junzo's shoulder and sheathed in smoothly as he let the genin stand.

_But still...if I hadn't made the extra effort._ Hayate shook his head mentally. The final moment before Junzo had struck, he could have sworn that he had seen a curious aura around the genin. That incredibly low duck and rise lunge was done with such speed that he was certain was beyond any normal genin and was easily comparable to the kid who had lost to the rather frightening Sand genin, despite his peerless taijutsu and speed, for a genin.

"Hmph. Well, close enough." Hayate shrugged, which elicited a curious look from Junzo. The jounin waved his hand dismissively. "Get to the ground, lets try practicing the new jutsu that our beloved Sandaime gave to you to practice..."

* * *

_Ugh, how tiring._

Junzo barely managed to pull himself out of his clothes and into more comfortable house clothes, not that his daily clothes were all that uncomfortable anyway. He tossed a shirt and shorts on, as he sat himself down on his bed and put all the five scrolls he'd gotten from the Hokage in one form or other before him. He took up the two scrolls on Kyokuken and decided he'd had enough physical-based activity recently, and set the two aside. He'd done quite a lot of ninjutsu practice today as well, and put the scroll of Suiton-element jutsus, which included rather lengthy explanations on the construction of the few jutsus actually listed within.

_Tch! And it seemed quite thick too!_ He lamented over the scroll, which had in reality only two standard jutsu and two applicable jutsus which were designed as basic training jutsu and support jutsu. He sighed and pushed that one away as well. Which then left him with the Kuchiyose no Jutsu to practice, he thought, as he eyed the last remaining scroll, which was at least twice the size of any of the other scrolls.

He sighed in exasperation at it, poking it with his finger. He'd been trying to summon something for a week now, but much to his chagrin, he failed to summon _anything_ at all. Junzo grumbled if it was even worth attempting again, but after awhile decided to try it again. If anything, it was helping him perform seals faster and was something of an exercise in building his chakra and stamina. He moved to the side and opened the scroll again, just to check one more time if he'd signed the scroll with his blood properly, before frowning and biting his thumb to begin the summoning sequence.

_All right! Here goes!_

The seals flashed in quick order, his hands somewhat practiced with the sequence by now, and finally he slammed his hand down on the grounds as he channeled what was left of his chakra into the jutsu. A cloud of smoke erupted from the floor of his apartment, causing him to cough. He waved the smoke away, which dissipated in a moment to reveal...nothing. _Ah, shimatta._

Junzo sighed and slumped down on the floor again, too tired to try and perform another summoning attempt, completely tired out from the day's training and the summoning attempt, which took up quite a fair bit of chakra. "Damn, I'll never get this...I'm too tired." He mumbled the latter belatedly and dragged himself over to his bed and proceeded to try and fall asleep.

His head had barely hit the pillow when he heard a smooth, but somewhat low voice fill the air. "You should be ashamed of yourself boy, living in a dump like this."

Junzo's eyes widened in surprise and his hand flashed towards the holster of shuriken and kunai by his bedside. Barely an instant passed from that moment, and he threw a trio of the projectiles at where he'd heard the voice come from. The figure was hunched over the Summoning Contract, and shifted into motion in an instant, using a pair of tanto to deflect the trio of shuriken. "Hey! What's the idea!"

Junzo had by now gotten his kodachi out of its sheath and held it at the ready. "How the hell did you get in here?" He barked out at the creature, which was clad in a curious looking robe of some sort. He moved quickly to try to disarm the thing, and launched himself to attack.

The creature responded wordlessly as it raised its twin tanto to block Junzo. The sound of steel rang out as Junzo pushed it up against the wall, his blade caught between the cross of the other's. "Calm down you baka! Of course I'm here, you idiot! You summoned me!"

"Summoned...?" He eyed the creature curiously. He eased the pressure against his foe, or summoned beast as it might be, and warily moved backwards. Backing away from it, he managed to get a much better view of what he'd just fought.

The creature before him was most definitely a lizard-man of some sort, standing a little above three feet high. Its scaling was a shade of light orange, and it wore a loose black robe that was clinched at its waist by a belt, where it had the sheaths for its paired tanto. "What are you...?" The genin mumbled out, shocked by the presence of the thing.

"What do I look like, huh? A frog?" The lizard grumbled as he sheathed its weapons and smoothed out his clothing. "Tch, the chakra you used this time around was smaller then I'm used to. I could barely get here." It mumbled grumpily.

"Whoa, wait...so that means I finally summoned something?" He suddenly blurted out. Junzo blinked in surprise, then smiled. "Cool. Its about time!" The genin grinned as he sheathed his kodachi and sat heavily on the bed, chuckling with relief. "I've been trying to summon something for over a week now...hey, wait a minute." The genin looked back at the lizard, a suspicious look in his eyes. "You said the chakra I used _this time around_ was smaller then usual? What do you mean by that...?"

The lizard, if it could look sheepish, shrugged and coughed. "Ah, yeah, well you see...you haven't really been failing all that much. Actually, you've been summoning me most of the time, since I'm usually the wait paying attention to a summons. Kind of like waiting at the gates for the call."

"Oh, okay...but if I've been summoning you all this time, why haven't I seen you up until now." Junzo asked the lizard, after taking in his explanation.

"Well, that's another thing. I kinda wanted to roam around a bit, so I pretty much scooted off to look around Konoha." The lizard grinned at Junzo and clasped its claws behind its head. "I haven't been here in years, you know?"

The genin frowned at that and eyed the lizard. "You could've just asked me if you wanted to go around, you know. Are all your kind like you?"

The lizard shrugged. "Well, you could say they are...we do like to travel and such."

_Ah, great of all the things to get..._ The genin slumped against his pillow face down and shook his head. "Perfect. Why couldn't I get a more reliable bunch of summoned beasts instead." He mumbled woefully.

"Hey! You could at least get my name you ingrate! I finally decided to appear to you and you reward me by attacking me! The nerve!" The lizard shouted as it hopped onto Junzo's bed and began kicking at the youth's pillow.


	4. Chapter 3: Forging Connections

Chapter 3: Forging Connections 

"OHAYO GOZAIMAZUUU!"

Junzo woke up blearily to the bothering pokes and incredibly strong voice, for its somewhat smallish size, of his newfound companion, the lizard summoned beast that insisted in being called Sekkou. He remembered the lizard's rather irritating introduction, which made up in a fair bit of volume what Junzo lacked in trying to ignore the creature after he had somewhat politely tried to get to sleep the night before after listening to the creature's random questions about Konoha.

"Hey look, its late anyway...I'd like to get to sleep first, then we can talk in the morning, okay?" Junzo tiredly told the lizard, who was sitting on top of his worktable beside his bed.

"_Iie!"_

After a while he'd lost his temper and tried to unsummon the thing, but to his dismay he realized that he didn't know any sealing techniques appropriate for that, and short of tiring it out and forcing it to use up its chakra and vanish, he couldn't do anything to get rid of the lizard.

"You could wake me up a bit less loudly...I mean, what time is it anyway?" Junzo mumbled and looked at the clock beside his bed. His eyes widened slightly in annoyance and he groaned to see the glowing numbers of 4:53 AM.

"Sekkou, what's the idea of waking me up so early you scaled moron?" The genin spat before slumping back into the softness of his pillow. A split second later the cold icy feeling of a tanto that had been chilled in the freezer touched his neck and caused the genin to quite literally freeze up as his ninja training locked in to avoid moving in a manner that would slash his own neck. "O-oi!"

"Didn't you listen to me? I said we were waking up early today!"

"You could have let me sleep earlier last night! You kept me up until midnight!"

"I had a lost of questions to ask." The lizard shrugged, nonchalantly playing with the end of the knife.

"Watch it!" Junzo barked as he managed to slip from under the edge of the knife and threw a punch to make Sekkou back off. "Fine, I'm awake. You're lucky I'm used to waking up kind of early anyways. You could at least tell me what reason you have for me to getting up at this time."

The lizard nodded and sheathed its tanto with a spinning flourish. "Hai, hai...tai-cho. Hoho." The lizardman snickered a bit at the last, before Junzo sent a glare at him again. "Well, I met your Hokage yesterday, you know?"

"You met the Hokage?" Junzo looked at the lizard, taken aback at this as he moved towards his shower with his clothes clumped up in his arms. "Okay, so I guess you weren't lying about having known a few of the older people here. The Hokage's old and knowledgeable if anything..." The genin's voice trailed off at the last as he entered his bathroom and slid the curtain over.

Sekkou hopped inside and settled himself down by the sink. "Yeah, I did. Anyways, he requested that I stop fooling around and helped you learn some new stuff. And NO, I'm not going to teach you, I'm no good for that kind of thing. But I did find someone who could help teach you, which is the point I had in mind."

Junzo shrugged as the shower water washed over his body, paying attention through the sound of the water to this new source of information. "Okay, I got that...Hayate was going on a mission starting today, I remember, so getting someone to try help train me isn't a bad idea." Junzo agreed as he thought out loud. "Anything else...?"

"Oh, well not really. I found a teacher, or at the least a potential teacher. You'll have to talk with him first of course, but I'm fairly sure he'll agree." Sekkou grew a bit quiet at this as a thoughtful look took over his expression. "He was my second choice, cause for some odd reason I couldn't find the man I actually had in mind to teach you. Ideally you would have had two teachers for different stages of mastering your Kyokuken and the other stuff of your heritage."

The genin made some sort of sound that he'd heard, just to be sure. Sekkou shrugged and touched a fingerpoint to the side of his head. "Say, what happened to the Uchiha Clan anyways? All that's left in their part of the village are caretakers."

"What? Can't hear you?"

"The Uchiha Clan, what's happened to them? I've been gone for a while and I was trying to look for someone." He shook his head. "Their compound is empty you know? Did they all die or something in the past decade?" The lizard snorted.

Junzo grew quiet at that. He personally hadn't been living in the village all that long, as it were. In fact, he'd only transferred to Konoha when his mother died and the few distant relatives he'd had of his father's side in the Hidden Leaf Village claimed his guardianship. That had been just over a decade ago, a year after the death of his father. They died in the line of duty, he knew, protecting what they held precious to them, leaving him pretty much alone though taken care off, at the age of six.

_Eleven years without them now, ten years of that in Konoha. I've been here ten years._ He reminded himself, and then at the sound of Sekkou his mind managed to snap back on track from that rather bitter fact of life. _What was the question again? A decade? Oh, the Uchiha!_

Ten years was certainly more then enough time in Konoha to have known _that_ particular tragedy though. He winced as he pulled a towel out around him and stepped out of the shower to look at Sekkou, who was waiting impatiently. He thought for a moment and then decided that a simple answer worked best. "The Uchiha Clan was massacred about five years ago."

He stepped out to take his clothes and change, as Sekkou gaped at him. "What!? Who...?"

"Uchiha Itachi. He murdered them all single-handedly, leaving his brother." Junzo continued, though remain quite brief with it.

Sekkou grumbled softly as he moved from the bathroom to perch grumpily on the wall. "Tch. A traitor to the clan huh. I didn't love the Uchiha as a whole personally, but it had quite a few good people. Damn." He shook his head and closed his eyes. "Why is it that those who betray are always so stupidly spectacular, just like..."

"Mmm? What was that?" Junzo asked as he finished changing into his daily outfit. He went to his mirror to check his clothes out quickly. He had semi-loose, gray shorts that extended to below his knees, and a plain white shirt on top with three dark blue lines crossed on his right shoulder. He fixed the Konoha band on his left arm, then finished it off by tugging on the blue cap on his head with the Konoha symbol on it. "All right, I think I'm done."

Sekkou tossed him his ninja sandals.

* * *

"So where are we going. It's what, five thirty? Who's going to be up at this time for a meeting like the one we're probably going to make?" Junzo looked at the lizard that was leaping off the tree branches with him as they moved through trees of Konoha to another part of the village.

"Quiet. We're almost there." Sekkou replied simply.

Junzo frowned at the lizard summon's words but decided it was too troublesome to argue. He looked up ahead at the section of the village they were nearing to try and guess exactly where or whom they were about to meet. The genin was prone to wandering around the village whenever he needed to think, which was quite often even when he started getting a bit friendlier with Hayate.

_Hmm, let's see..._ He looked at the buildings that were quickly becoming more and more visible and studied their layout. He did his wandering more during the late afternoon and night though, when the cool forest breeze and the darkening sky suited being outdoors, so it was a bit different from in the morning.

The houses appearing before him were classic in architecture and spaced out evenly in a traditional design. That would probably mean that Sekkou was taking him to one of the clans of Konoha. Among the various clans, he knew that only a few built their homes in such a manner, or had large enough families to merit building their estates as such. If anything, he could tell that the clan was fairly wealthy, as he looked on the various homes that were gathered together, though set a noticeable distance from each other and from the village proper in particular. He eyed their location in reference to the village, to try and guess who lived in this part of Konoha.

His eyes widened in realization as he managed to figure out where they were headed. Or rather, to whose residential area they were about to enter. The genin came to a rather abrupt stop on a tree branch at this point and called out to Sekkou. "Are you insane? You're taking me to the Hyuuga?" He barked out incredulously at the lizard.

Sekkou came to a stop and looked oddly at Junzo, then sighed and hopped back to talk with him. "Yeah, the guy I know is a Hyuuga. So what about it? I'm sure he won't be unhappy to see you."

"Huh, and why should that be so?"

"Well, you see...this Hyuuga knew your father. He was friends with him before, about ten years ago last I remember." Sekkou winced a bit at that and shook his head. "Well anyway, that's that. Are you coming or not? Time is precious, you know."

"Hnn, fine." Junzo sighed in a mix of trepidation and resignment. It wouldn't be the first time the Hyuuga shoved him off their property for accidentally wandering in again anyway. Junzo leaped off to follow Sekkou, who had moved on ahead. They came up eventually to the main pathway leading inside the estates.

"Okay, I'm going to hide for now. Go look for Hyuuga Jiten, and say that you've come to collect the favor he owes Tokage Sekkou." Sekkou quickly whispered as they neared and poofed into smoke before Junzo could do anything.

"This is going to be so easy, huh..." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Ugh, yeah right." He resigned himself to this and walked up to the rather large doors to the Hyuuga estate. Just before he managed to knock on the wooden door, a faint motion behind him signaled the arrival of a Hyuuga guardian.

"Well, you look familiar." The Hyuuga behind him murmured softly, his hands crossed over his chest as he eyed Junzo. "Starting the day out a bit early aren't you?" It was a rather tall Hyuuga ninja, though his features were about the same as most of the others. It was a face one wouldn't recognize unless he or she interacted with the person on a somewhat more frequent basis then Junzo was prone to.

"Oh, hi! I'm not wandering around this time though." He managed a nervous smile to try and put some semblance of levity into the situation. "I'm here to, uh, well find someone. Yeah." He coughed a bit and cleared his throat. "Could you help me find Hyuuga Jiten, please?" The genin added the last as an afterthought, which wasn't quite lost on the Hyuuga before him.

The Hyuuga debated on whether the genin was joking or not then decided he wasn't; after all he did name a specific person amongst the Hyuuga. "Well, fine then. For what reason are you visiting Hyuuga Jiten?"

"I'm here to uh...deliver a personal message." Junzo decided on that particular variant of excuse, as it seemed to be the best way to term what Sekkou had told him before bumping into the Hyuuga ninja.

"Name?"

"Mizushin Junzo." The genin answered easily. What was easier then his own name anyway? Of course he supposed there were situations that would make giving a name difficult, but this was hardly one of those theoretical situations.

The Hyuuga nodded and told him to stay where he was until he or another Hyuuga ninja allowed his entry into the Hyuuga compound. Junzo nodded and walked off to the side as the Hyuuga ninja vanished. He waited for a short while before the same Hyuuga ninja reappeared and opened up the door for him. The genin thanked the guardian, who he discovered was named Hyuuga Kyokki, not that he was certain he'd remember the name but it was easy enough being polite.

A Hyuuga servant met him at the entrance, a completely normal person with normal eyes Junzo noted, and led him around towards one of the Branch House section of the estate, which flanked the Main House areas in all directions. He soon reached what seemed to be their destination, as the servant bowed at him slightly and gestured at a closed doorway which led into what seemed to be a training dojo. Junzo gave the servant a nod and the hint of a half-smile, then turned to put his hand on the door and slid it open.

His guess that the room was a training dojo was correct, and he was greeted to the sight of two Hyuugas having tea on one side of the room, one of them without a hitae-ate around his head, showing him to be of the Main House family, which was rather curious. Junzo wasn't familiar with the intricacies of the Hyuuga family, but he knew enough to know that the Main House and Branch House members usually didn't mix much.

In the center was yet another Hyuuga, of the Branch House it seemed, practicing the forms of their famed taijutsu style, Jyuuken. This one was a rather young male, probably ten or eleven it seemed. Despite the similarity is most Hyuugas, he could tell that he probably was the son of the other Branch House Hyuuga in the dojo, who was talking with the Main House Hyuuga as they observed the child's practice. The man noticed Junzo standing at the doorway and motioned for him to come in around the dojo center floor to them.

The genin moved at that and made his way around the Hyuuga practicing, then set himself in front, though not in blocking view, of the two. "Ah, I'm here to talk to Hyuuga Jiten? I was told to deliver a personal message to him." He looked at the two, settling eventually on the Branch House member.

"I am Hyuuga Jiten. Come then, and tell me this message." The House Hyuuga spoke clearly, his white eyes looking straight into Junzo's. He suppressed a shudder, instead clearing his throat to speak.

"I've come to, the favor you owe Tokage Sekkou." Junzo said, realizing how silly the message seemed. He had little doubt at that moment that he was going to be taken out, but hoped that the lizard was giving him something concrete to work with.

"Tokage Sekkou..." Jiten's eyes seemed to widen at the name, then he turned to the Branch member beside him. "Forgive me, but I need to speak with this one alone. Perhaps we can meet again tomorrow."

"As you wish, Hyuuga-sama." The other Hyuuga nodded and gestured for his son to stop. Their pair left Junzo with the Hyuuga who seemed to be Hyuuga Jiten in silence.

"Come, sit." Jiten nodded slowly at Junzo and gestured at the now-unoccupied place beside the low table where he had been drinking tea at. The genin hesitated for a moment before he moved to sit down. The silence was quite palpable, as Jiten simply sat there and sipped at his tea. "So, Tokage Sekkou. I assume you are the one who summoned him?"

"Hai. I did, Hyuuga-sama." Junzo replied, deciding to place safe with the honorific.

Jiten shook his head. "Iie. Hyuuga-sama is a habit carried by most of the Branch House members, despite my wishes for them not to call me as they call most of my House. Referring to me as Jiten-san is good enough. Or perhaps for now you would feel more at ease with Hyuuga-san." Jiten gave Junzo a small, amused smile.

"Oh, and please do come out, Sekkou." The Hyuuga's smile quickly vanished as his hand raised up and the lines of his Byakugan appeared. The shift was startling and sudden, and caused Junzo to tense up. A low chuckle filled the room, one that was familiar to Junzo, as Sekkou appeared from the ceiling and landed lightly on the floor.

"Aah, the place is exactly the same as I remember it. Not that I forget much, mmm?" Sekkou chuckled softly. He sighed after a while and looked at Jiten. "Well, it's been a dozen years, Jiten. The boy tells me the Uchiha have been annihilated by one of their own. I have to assume that even Aiko-chan is dead, huh?" Jiten nodded, a somber look on his face despite the Byakugan deactivating.

"Tch. Well, with Aiko gone, you're the only one left who knows on what to teach this one. I'm sure the Sandaime is too busy for that." Sekkou shrugged. "Unless you wont accept to teach him that is...?"

"Hmph." Jiten's eyes closed. "I'm far too old now for you to try taunt me, Sekkou. I'm no longer the hot-headed young man I was. Twelve years changes a person, remember?" The lizard chuckled on, and the Hyuuga turned to look at Junzo. "So, you're Mizushin Junzo. I assume that Sekkou has told you that I knew your father. I used to serve with him on missions back in the day. Quite a taijutsu and seals-specialist that one."

Jiten breathed in deeply and exhaled. "You know about Kyokuken, yes? I know that the Hokage has the scrolls on it somewhere..."

"Ah, he gave it to me already. At the same time that I signed the Summoning Contract with Sekkou and his kind...although, I haven't seen any of the others yet." Junzo trailed off at the last and flashed a glare at Sekkou, who shrugged nonchalantly, much to Junzo's distaste. "Sorry for the interruption."

"Hmm, it is fine. This is all quite abrupt however, Junzo. You are a genin still, yes?" Jiten looked at the youth, who flushed red with embarrassment. Jiten shrugged. "A shame...it will be difficult to teach you. If Uchiha Aiko were only here as well..." The Hyuuga sighed softly and shook his head. "Do you know your heritage, Junzo? Tell me what you know."

The genin shrugged and tugged on the end of his cap. "I don't know all that much really, just a general thing. They told me that my father was a ninja of Konoha, and that my mother was a Mist ninja. He died fighting the Kyuubi when I was four, back when I lived with my mother. She died a year later, and I came here afterwards." He shrugged. "They passed me to genin level because of them, or so they tell me. That's all I know...I don't know anything about my father, or my mother as a ninja."

Jiten nodded slowly at this and took another sip at his tea. "I see. It is the truth, though there is much of it that you do not know. Your father did die fighting the Kyuubi, as did a great many of us then, before the Yondaime stopped him." He breathed in deeply and grew silent for a while, then turned to Junzo again. Sekkou had vanished by now.

"I shall tell you something on your parents, for now. And to gauge if you are worthy to follow in their footsteps." The Hyuuga breathed in as he began his tale. "Of your mother, I do not know all that much. She was a Mist ninja after all. But of what your father told me, I knew her talents, Shinsui Hana. She was exceptionally proficient at manipulating water-based jutsu, and he called her the "Sword of Water" on more then one occasion."

"She was good at forming blades and stuff with water-jutsu!" Sekkou interjected at that point, which drew an eye from Jiten. The lizard raised his hands, or claws, up and moved on to go off elsewhere in the dojo.

Junzo found that amusing, that Sekkou had finally been effectively scolded before his attention was drawn back to Jiten. "I didn't care too much for your mother or news of her before. I never paid much attention back then, although perhaps I would have if I knew this would happen." Jiten shook his head. "Your father's name was Kyotetsu Kenji. He was one of the students of the great Sannin, Jiraiya, of the same genin team as our late Yondaime. Kenji was already a talented taijutsu fighter with Kyokuken, and developed the Shingan well as his own father before him."

The Hyuuga nodded at Junzo. "If you master the style, you will be the second generation to have mastered it. Unlike many taijutsu, yours is a very young one, its original concepts made by your grandfather then brought into being and truly born by your father. It was created for a specific purpose in mind, and that is to combat doujutsu. Like my Byakugan." Jiten turned to look gravely at Junzo, and continued with barely a pause. "And the Sharingan."

Junzo's blood chilled at that. A fighting style created to counter the Byakugan and Sharingan? He'd never heard of that before. Nor did it make sense, especially since simple taijutsu, no matter how formidable, did not seem to be a foil to the two fearsome Clans' powers. His throat dried and nodded.

"Obviously this secret style, this hijutsu, is not known to most. In fact, only I and Sekkou and his kind know of its purpose, although I think so does the Sandaime." Jiten shrugged, speaking in a low, but steady voice. "Its history is not too long, but I shall get too deep into it nonetheless. Simply put, it combined the ability to combat Jyuuken, which we Hyuugas use with our Byakugan, and to combat the illusionary powers of the Sharingan with an ability that your ancestors hoped would become a bloodline trait, the Shingan."

"S-shingan...?"

''Apparently you have not unlocked it. It is the hoped-for ability that would have been partnered completely with your Kyokuken, just as the Byakugan is partnered with the Jyuuken." Jiten exhaled tiredly. "I can see that you have much to learn. I tell you, although the basics of your father's Kyokuken may be in the scrolls, there is no way to truly master it unless you learn from me. But you must bear this in mind, your fate and destiny if you chose to pursue learning Kyokuken and to unlock your Shingan." The Hyuuga slowly rose from his seat and stepped onto the central floor.

Junzo watched the man as he took up a place on the training floor and gestured for the genin to move to step up before him. The youth complied shortly thereafter, and stood up a short distance from Jiten. _My fate? My destiny?_

"You are probably wondering what I meant back there. About the words on what your fate and destiny is, should you chose to learn." Jiten looked intensely at Junzo.

_How did...?_

"It is easy to read your thoughts. It is natural, and made even more obvious with the insight and details I can detect with my Byakugan." The Hyuuga cut him short, as he activated the eyes which his clan was famous for. "Your destiny, Mizushin Junzo. Kyokuken and the Shingan are a powerful combination, having the potential to be able to destroy either the Uchiha or Hyuuga clan, if the former were not already gone, and if placed in the right hands."

"It is because of that, I have to see if you have the strength to carry out your destiny as one who might wield power to rival the Hyuuga." His eyes narrowed slightly as the lines from his Byakugan seemed to radiate chakra with its activation. "Or to eliminate it from you. If you take the stance of Kyokuken before me, I will take that as a sign that you are willing to fight me. If you take one step forward from that stance, I will not hold back. I will fight to kill you."

Junzo took a step back, his hands clenched up in fists as he swallowed in fear. _What is this?_ It did not make sense to him. Jiten here obviously knew quite a bit about his father, and Sekkou's banter of sorts confirmed that. But to test him in this manner was just ridiculous! He couldn't be serious, could he? A look into Hyuuga Jiten's eyes was all it took to rid that thought from Junzo's mind. Jiten was not joking. He knew that if he took that step, he would risk dying to try and learn his father's legacy.

The genin was frozen, this completely unexpected situation. A duel to the death, out of the blue. _It makes no sense!_ He shouted in his mind, as he grit his teeth, his body trembling with frustration and fear.

"So...you will not come at me?"

The question rang in his mind. The man before him could reveal more about his father that Sekkou and his own probably couldn't. He could help him master Kyokuken and his father's legacy. And also teach him the secret of this Shingan that he had mentioned. _All right, this man was father's friend right? He is a ninja of Konoha, he's a good actor of course, he won't kill me, right?_ Junzo gulped and shakily forced himself to take the stance for Kyokuken, his feet moving slowly. Jiten waited patiently for Junzo, his eyes remaining the same. Cold and emotionless. The genin forced himself to move. _All right. Come on!_

"I _will_ fight to kill you, you know." Jiten's voice came out in a steady manner, as if he was declaring a fact. Which Junzo realized he was.

_Damn it! Move!_ The genin screamed to himself. But flashes of memories from the past constricted him. He cursed silently, again and again. _I...can't. I'm still the same after all. Damn it! I must, move...please._

A moment passed, then another. After a short while Jiten relaxed and shook his head. "Hmph. It is a shame. But I am not sorry to say, you are no ninja. You may not have known your father and mother all that well, but is for the best. They would have been ashamed of you." The Hyuuga turned to look at Junzo with a look of disappointment and disdain. "Come back in five years, _child_, and maybe by then you'll have just enough backbone. Until then, get out of my sight."

Jiten stepped off the dojo floor, and slid the door open then vanished around the corner. Sekkou was nowhere to be seen. The genin dropped to the floor, his breath quick and heavy, his arms shaking.

Junzo was quiet the journey home, where he eventually was met up by Sekkou. The lizard was normally quite boisterous, but the heavy aura around Junzo was enough to tell him not to try and talk to him. He departed for his own world shortly afterwards when Junzo had reached his apartment on the other side of Konoha.

* * *

The genin closed the door and locked it, then checked that the curtains were pulled over. His room darkened despite the fact that it was now becoming the bright part of the day and dawn fully arrived. He certainly didn't feel like a bright new day was beginning. His thoughts were confused if anything.

He'd expected to find someone to teach him taijutsu, that was a given, someone who knew about his father. But to discover that he had to reach to satisfy Hyuuga Jiten's expectations of risking his life to learn something, even for a ninja that was harsh. His mother remained a mystery, even if he had lived with her for five years, he knew nothing of her life as a ninja. And just what kind of man was his father? Just yesterday he knew next to nothing, and today he found that he was being measured up to a ninja who was trained by one of the Sannin.

Compared to a great specter he did not personally know much about, if anything at all! It wasn't fair, he cried to himself. It was hardly the kind of revelation he would have chosen, if at all. Now that he knew his father was a great ninja, if not someone like the Sannin or Yondaime, his fellow genin teammate, he was nonetheless one of skill that he perfected a taijutsu style equal to Jyuuken.

_Why is it I'm always grasping at shadows?! First the shadow of not knowing, and now it's the shadow of your greatness?_ He grit his teeth in anger and frustration. _Who the hell are you anyway? _

He remembered all the times he'd asked his uncles and aunts about his father, all the uneasy and uninterested stares. He had often wondered why they had taken him or asked for his custody in the first place. It was some years later that he discovered why. He was a son of their family, and Konoha wasn't just going to simply let him roam free and be used by the Mist. Simple politics was the motivation. That had been years ago.

_Mother..._ He murmured softly, as he recalled the halcyon days when he was with his mother in her clan, before it was wiped out in the annihilation of the clans in Mist. He shuddered with the memory, and stopped himself from crying out. That had been eleven years ago. His mother's death. Their deaths. For ten years he'd been alone in this village, so unlike his younger years.

His dark thoughts were broken with a knock on his window. He blinked his eyes and looked at the clock by his bed, which glowed 7:43 PM. _All day already?_ Junzo thought tiredly. The knocking continued, and Junzo wiped his face before peering out the window. The figure of Hayate was standing outside. The genin sighed and unlocked the window, letting his sensei in.

"You missed our training session today."

"I thought you were going to start your mission today."

Hayate shrugged. "I did. But it consists of various members, and right now I'm free to do what I want." He coughed and eyed Junzo. "I can see you've been moping around. Did something happen today?"

The question was a simple one, but one with weight. A month ago, Junzo wouldn't have said anything much. Maybe even two weeks ago. But today he started talking to Hayate. About his discoveries of his father. About his feelings of living in his father's shadow ever since he came to Konoha. He didn't say anything about his mother, choosing to leave that part of his past out of it. It wasn't something that directly affected him about today.

Hayate simply stayed there, listening patiently until Junzo was finished. He was quiet for a moment, before he shifted his feet and spoke. "The Hyuuga are uptight pricks with stupid standards." He stated simply.

Junzo's eyes widened at that and gaped at Hayate. "What? They're the strongest clan in Konoha, what are you...?"

"That doesn't make them socially capable or sensitive. They're one of Konoha's most traditionalistic clans. I respect them, but they have quite a lot of their fair share of flaws." Gekkou Hayate stated again, and coughed into a hand. "Hyuuga Jiten, huh? He used to be quite the draconian trainer, I remember. I'm not surprised he challenged you like that so seriously. He would have really fought you without holding back, you know."

"But don't worry about it. He might be right about knowing the full limits of your dad's Kyokuken and this 'Shingan' he's talking about. But I don't doubt that the Sandaime knows as well. If anything, that man's the most knowledgeable Hokage we ever had. Have, I mean." He amended at that last. "He might not be able to train you, but I'll make sure you do great, as will the Hokage. He takes care of all of us, and we take care of Konoha." The ill-looking nin coughed again and nodded at Junzo. "I still am your sensei after all."

"And if he sucks as a teacher, I'm sure I can throw in a hand as well!"

"What the hell? Genma, what are _you_ doing here?" Hayate eyed the other jounin who had just suddenly popped out of nowhere and was sticking his head through the window.

"Maa, maa. No need to get angry, I was just passing by, just passing by." Shiranui Genma winked at the two inside, and totally destroyed the previously serious atmosphere with his presence. "Well, okay, maybe I wasn't just passing by. But I do have a reason for coming here anyway. Hokage-sama was planning to make me a jounin-sensei after the Chuunin exams were over..."The jounin coughed and puffed himself up, "because of my insightful and sensitive nature."

"You're drunk aren't you?" Hayate sighed and stepped closer to Genma. True to his guess, the smell of alcohol was somewhat strong on his fellow jounin. His hands patted the other's vest and managed to find two more sake bottles on him, which he quickly relieved off him as Genma slumped over and fell onto Junzo's bed.

"H-hey! Get off my bed!"

"Now, now, you should pay respect to the man who's going to become your sensei you know?" Genma chuckled, his laughter trailing off and beginning again randomly.

"You can stop with the jokes now, Shiranui." Hayate coughed as he placed the two sake bottles on a nearby table.

"Oh, no, not joking. The Hokage said so himself. I didn't have too much of a choice, he said something about repaying Kyotetsu-sensei. Pfft, how the heck do I repay someone who's dead." Genma shook his head. "And the hell I'm not going to pay anything to those pompous pricks, trace their lineage back or whatever. Not like I can teach any of them even if I wanted to."

"Hnn. Actually, Junzo here is Kyotetsu-sensei's son."

"Mmm? I must really be drunk." Genma looked over at Junzo, who was looking at Genma with a mix of disgust and some other emotion he simply failed to describe. "You know, you kinda look like that old square. Such a strict bastard, mmm..." He grew quiet for a while longer as he slumped back on the bed.

Then Genma's eyed snapped open. "HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE---!"

"Quiet, you baka!" Hayate slapped his hand over Genma's mouth, which elicited a queasy look from the both of them. As soon as he was sure the other wouldn't shout, which was an easy and thankful second or two only later, he wiped his hand off on Genma's clothes.

"Whoa, you're his kid. He had a kid. I didn't know that...must have been a bit of a hush-hush affair or something, huh?" Genma managed, squinting at Junzo, who was watching the two with an exasperated look on his face.

_Well, this is distracting if anything._ The genin thought.

"I used to be one of the genins your dad taught you know? He started teaching a bit later on then most of the others his age, but he was a good teacher. Strict as hell, but he taught." Genma rubbed his head. "The man was damn good at taijutsu and sealing techniques. He helped the Yondaime with sealing techniques sometimes. No one knew him better then the Yondaime and his companions, who were they again...? He used to have two friends with him all the time besides his old genin team. A Hyuuga and an Uchiha..."

As soon as Genma's voice began to slur, Hayate moved over to pick him up from the bed and helped him over his shoulder. "All right, let's get you out of here." He moved over near the window and gave Junzo one last look.

"I'm fine now, really. Talk helped." He shrugged at the last and nodded.

"Hnn. All right then, you keep yourself healthy." Hayate turned to move out, then looked back inside again. "You know, you just turned 17 right? It's a bit early, but...just don't take too much." The jounin nodded at Junzo, before he vanished into the night with not a bit of noise following, care of the half-drunk slung on his shoulder.

The genin frowned at Hayate's words then turned around to see the two small bottles of sake on his table. "Ugh, is Hayate nuts? I can't drink this..." he shook his head exasperatedly. "Its going to go to waste here, tsk." He eyed the sake bottles annoyedly and tried to ignore them. _No, I've got to get rid of them._ He sat down at the desk and thought of whom he might be able to drop by at this time. He snapped his fingers as he recalled that the old man he played chess on occasion liked to relax to sake at night, something he'd seen the old man do every night at around this time.

Although he didn't have all too many friends his age Junzo had quite a few friends of older generations. Particularly among the parents with really young children, as the typically somber genin often grew quite active and warm among the kids whom he played with and the old people he talked with on things like Konoha's history, something he was particularly interested in. It wasn't quite the companionship he needed, but it was enough to distract him from his troubles. e took the two sake bottles and put them somewhere on his person. He stuffed them into one of the side pouches, barely fitting into it as it were, but it would hold easy enough until he got to the old man at the end of the street, from where he could begin his nightly walk. Junzo tucked them in again, just to be sure, then locked his place up and moved onto the street.

* * *

Quite a few people were still walking around in the dusk, beyond the normal night crowd. It was because of the Chuunin finals that was coming around in a week that there were just more people then there usually were, he thought. It didn't matter, as he navigated them at a quick pace. He was just about to sidestep past a trio of men, when the man he was about to move past moved to his side, not anticipating that Junzo was going to move that same way to avoid him as well. The two bumped into each other with a jolt, which caused Junzo to slip and fall back.

"Oh, sorry, my apologies." The man quickly said and offered a hand to help him up. Junzo looked up to see a very large person, a bit of the chubby side, but he could tell that underneath that was quite a bit of muscle, which he could feel in the man's firm lift.

"No, its okay. I was running a bit too fast anyway." Junzo apologized in return, managing a polite half-smile for the man. He turned to glance over the large man's companions. One was a blonde who looked oddly familiar, the other a dark haired man with a scar. Their dress and look placed them easily as ninjas. The genin turned back to look at the large fellow he'd bumped into and nodded again. "My apologies sir. I have to go though, perhaps I'll meet you another time."

The ninja smiled and nodded. "Okay, see you around then."

Before Junzo could move though, the blond ninja moved over. "Wait a bit. What is that...?"

"Huh?" The genin stopped after taking a step. The blond-haired ninja stepped closer to Junzo and eyed the somewhat large pouch that was straining at his side. "Oh this, it's nothing. I'm just bringing some stuff around." Junzo shrugged, hoping that the ninja wouldn't pursue the matter too much.

"It looks kind of like sake bottle stuffed in a ninja pouch." The dark-haired ninja sniffed at the pouch, eyeing the article suspiciously. "Why don't we check it out, hmm?"

"Hey, wait a sec...!" Junzo raised his hands up to try to ward them off, and glanced at the large man who was rolling his eyes in exasperation. _What the...hey, I-I can't move!_ He tried to move his limbs, but it seemed that a force was restricting his motion. He grit his teeth and began to summon his chakra to break free when motion was restored to him and he staggered forward, overbalanced.

"Hah, I knew it! Sake!" Inoshin smirked, holding a sake bottle by its top and waggling a finger at Junzo who was red in the face. He flushed more with annoyance at being stolen from in the first place rather then having gotten caught.

As Inoshin and Shikato exulted over the sake and began reminiscing over the times they sneaked off with sake when they were underaged, Choumarou sighed and turned towards Junzo. "I have to apologize for their actions, kid. But aren't you kind of underaged for sake in the first place? The shuriken pouch isn't exactly the best place to hide sake bottles. How old are you anyway?"

"I wasn't trying to _hide_ anything. I was just on my way to hand them to the old man down the street who lives on the corner for his chess game." Junzo sighed with an angry look on his face for the other two. "And I'm seventeen. Besides, I don't drink anyway." His voice trailed off towards the last, a slight hint of pain crossing his face.

Choumarou eyed Junzo's expression. "Oh? You look quite young for your age." If anything, Choumarou was a good judge of character. At least, he was in comparison to the two men he was with right now in general. "Hmm, I suppose I have to apologize for their behavior. They were out a bit early in drinking."

_Man, drunks again? First Genma and now these...two._ Junzo shook his head. Alcohol, he decided, was a very dangerous thing. "Hnn. No, it's okay. It was supposed to be a gift for the old man anyway." He shrugged, and turned back to head home. "Well, I guess that's rather impossible now. I just wanted to get rid of the sake actually, so I guess in a way I succeeded in doing that." The genin eyed the two other older ninjas.

"Oh, I see...hmm." Choumarou looked at his curiously then at the two who were imbibing freely of the freed sake. He shook his head at the two, then looked back at Junzo who was starting to walk home down the street. Choumarou pushed the pair forward as the genin moved off, sparing the kid one more glance before helping the two get home to their families.

"Huh, what a curious kid." The somewhat inebriated Shikato murmured softly. "He reminds me of that ninja who hated liquor we met before, back in the day. Kid even looks like what she did, doesn't she?"

"Hnn...that was well over a decade ago, Shikato. How the heck do you still remember that?" Inoshi mumbled, clearly the most drunk among the three, though Choumarou hardly seemed affected at all, as he usually was.

Nara Shikato chuckled softly at Inoshin as they managed to make their way finally closer to the Yamanaka home and Flower Shop. "Kind of hard to forget that night you were hitting on a married woman, and Kyotetsu's girlfriend at that. I mean, the only way it could have been worse is if you were flirting with the Yondaime's!" Shikato chuckled, then paused to look at Inoshi. "You were quite the flirt back then, especially during that year before you got your act together to marry Nikki-san, you dirty devil you..."

"Who was flirting with whom?" A familiar voice called out from the Yamanaka home.

"Hehe, well we have to go! Ja ne, Inoshi." Shikato winked at the ninja and moved off with Choumarou who actually looked amused at the possibility of Inoshi having to confront his wife, even if it was on a topic that was long gone. "Think of it as punishment for swiping that kid's sake."

"H-hey, wait a minute, you weren't exactly...!"

"Inoshi?" The doorway to the Yamanaka flower shop, which also was the first floor of the respectably sizeable Yamanaka home, slid open to reveal Inoshi's platinum haired wife standing with a questioning look on her face.

"Oh man." He mumbled as his one and only daughter appeared with a grin on her face beside her mother. By this time, Shikato and Choumarou had disappeared from sight and were walking down the street a distance away.

He sighed softly as he turned his attention back homewards and began to walk inside. _But I guess Shikato was right. That kid, really looked like Kyotetsu, but also kind of like his girlfriend. I never knew they managed to have kids, did they even get married?_ Inoshi turned to his wife, "Say, do you remember Kyotetsu Kenji, the Yondaime's genin teammate?"

"You have the scent of alcohol on you, I heard something about hitting on someone's girlfriend, and something about a kid?"

_Oh shoot._

* * *

_Hayate-sensei is right._ Junzo lay down on his bed, his arms crossed behind his head as he thought on what happened that day. _Even if that Hyuuga Jiten guy might have been a good trainer or something, he's being stupid with such an outrageous test like that. I mean, its not like it's a ninja mission or anything._

"Yosh! Even if he won't train me, that doesn't mean I can't learn on my own!" Junzo spoke out loud as he rose up and searched for the Kyokuken scrolls. He left the sealed scroll on Kyokuken on the table, and took the first unsealed one with him as he sat on the bed to read it again. He scanned the scroll again as he put his hands together to aid him in focusing his chakra.

"Gather your chakra over yourself, like an aura that surrounds your body completely." He exhaled and drew out his chakra over himself, creating a faint aura of energy around his body. He ejected the chakra from his whole being, which was far more difficult then emitting it from your hands or feet.

"Next, empower your aura with your strength to reinforce and unleash its power." The second step was to give power to the aura of chakra around his body, so that its presence wasn't simply for show, but effectively changed it into a field of force.

"Last, envision a sheath of chakra around your aura to contain it and give your aura its shape. Compress and control this power and mold it into your very body, into your skin, to be your invincible armor and strength." The last part was the hardest. It was easy enough to generate an aura of chakra from your body, and somewhat easy to simply exert more chakra into the aura for it to flare up into a field of sheer energy. But without controlling that and containing it, it was useless because that meant that all his chakra would quickly be drained out and would leave him exhausted.

He breathed in deeply again as his aura, flared up from the second stage, began to compress and shrink in size, though not in potency, and from a bright flame that surrounded him it turned into an even more intense field of chakra that shimmered through his skin. Or would, if he had a Sharingan or Byakugan, perhaps. The end result was that the aura of chakra had molded into his skin, quite literally turning into something like a skin of steel, impenetrable by either fists or chakra.

_The perfect counter to Jyuuken!_ He grinned with triumph.

But the third stage was hardly something he had perfected yet, especially since he wasn't even particularly good at ejecting chakra from his whole body in the first place. After a minute or so of concentration and maintaining the third stage, his aura, compressed so much, began to fluctuate and waver. A moment later, his chakra broke free of the sheath of chakra he'd made over his aura, and the next moment his field collapsed and his chakra dissipated. He exhaled and slumped back on his bed, tired from the exercise.

_How long was that, one minute or so? Well, it's a bit better then before. But, not good enough for me to use in a fight._ Junzo closed his eyes for a while and let his thoughts drift.

_Father, I never knew you._ The genin opened his eyes again and sat back up. _But I swear, I'll surpass both you and mother. Just like she always said!_ He narrowed his eyes and clasped his hands together. _And I'll use your strength and mom's, to get justice for her._

His aura flared once again. "Kyokuken, Kongou no Gotai."

* * *

A/N: And finally some information is revealed! Junzo gets some real character development, and we see hints of his past. How am I writing him? Too much too fast? Too little development? Feels like there are character development holes? Blah blah blah...whatever comments you have for this story, please do review. Any ideas and constructive comments will be much appreciated. I do hope to stay on the proper line of OC creation.

Oh, and yes, a few translations:

Kyokuken: Ultimate Fist (Style)

Kongou no Gotai: Diamond Body


	5. Chapter 4: Setting the Stage

**Chapter 4: Setting the Stage**

The streets of Konoha were crowded this day. It was the day just before the Chuunin finals, and Junzo could easily feel the anticipation for the event that was going to come tomorrow. He felt another twinge of regret in his heart that he'd only gotten off his ass and out of his shell recently and started looking forward. But he supposed that it was better then nothing. _Better late then never, right?_

The genin sighed softly as he continued on his way to the Konoha hospital for his monthly check up, as was required of all of Konoha's ninjas when they were in town. It helped make sure that they were in top shape and didn't fall apart during a mission, especially with the weakened medical corps they had. The Sandaime probably was trying to help shore that up, but even the old man wasn't infallible. As wise and experienced as he probably was, the medic corps needed a specialist ninja to lead them. Junzo recalled that back during the end of the Ninja Wars, that troublesome period that forged Konoha through its founding almost a century ago, one of the Sannin was an unrivaled medic nin.

_My dad was trained by one of the Sannin too..._ He remembered, from the words of Hyuuga Jiten, which was confirmed by Sekkou, Hayate, and Genma, though the last was quite wasted last night. Junzo sighed, a frown on his face as he saw the arch that led to the front courtyard of the Konoha hospital. He took a turn and went straight for one of the side entrances where he knew would be the shortest route to where he had to go.

_Whoa!_ He stumbled a bit as his foot suddenly plunged into a large depression. "What the heck?" He mumbled, annoyed, as he recovered his balance and moved out of it. "That's a weird looking hole..." He continued after looking it over once more. _It looks like a huge footprint. But that can't be possible, nothing's that big. Right?_

"No." He answered himself softly as he continued onwards. There were things that big, he recalled. The greatest of the summoned beasts often reached massive sizes many times that of their smaller brethren, the largest of them massive enough to devastate a town by itself in moments if unhindered. The Sannin were said to have all been summoners of such massive creatures, capable of calling even the leaders of the summoned beasts of their contracts. "Hmm, I wonder if dad was ever able to call out something like that."

He tsked again. "All I ever manage to get is Sekkou, that annoying thing." He sighed soft again, and began to think that his face would permanently get disfigured from all the sighing he'd been doing recently. The door was just up ahead and Junzo moved up to push the glass doorway open. He came into one of the secondary stations and moved to start down the hallway, when a shock of pink hair smashed into him.

_Huh?_

"Aah, you're so clumsy Sakura-chan. Your forehead's too big you can't see anything anymore!" A girl with blond hair came up in a slow run. The girl turned to Junzo as he helped the pink-haired girl get up. "My apologies, sempai." She clasped her hands together and bowed just a bit in apology.

"No, its fine. I wasn't paying attention anyway." Junzo waved it off as he finally got a good look at the two, including the girl who had bumped into him. Both were fair-skinned as it were, one with surprisingly pink hair and an embarassed look on her face. He had to admit, she _did_ have a touch sizeable of a forehead. The other one had a rather radiant smile on her face and a look that was anything but demure.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention either." The one named Sakura apologized to him as well.

"Its your forehead I tell you, forehead girl. There isn't anything left in that head of yours, except maybe for Sasuke-kun. Why don't you give up already, I'm far more sexy then you are. Why don't you look for some other guy." She winked at Sakura, and then at Junzo. "Hey, hey, sempai here is kind of cute, why don't you take her on a date? Hmm?"

_What the hell?! Is this girl insane?_

"What are you talking about, Ino!" Sakura retorted, another blush crossing her face, though Junzo could hardly tell if it was embarrassment or anger. "I'm a hundred, no, a THOUSAND times more sexy and pretty then you are, Ino-pig! I tell you me and Sasuke---"

"Ano...I think I'll go now." Junzo backed away from the pair slowly as they got into their argument, raising his hands up as he moved away. He quickly turned after a few steps, and hoped that he wouldn't have any more such encounters for the day.

* * *

"Hmm, so there has been movement?"

"We think so, Hokage-sama. Although we don't have much knowledge of Otogakure's forces, or the exact numbers, our information leads us to believe that recently they have grown particularly quiet."

The Sandaime nodded slowly at that, listening intently to the ANBU captain's report. "I see. We shall have to be on our guard even more now. Orochimaru will likely make his move very soon. Perhaps even during tomorrow's Chuunin Finals."

"You think he will risk an attack then? Not only the Fire Country have dignitaries coming then, there are a fair number of nobles and leaders from Earth and Wind Country as well." The Konoha ninja advisor, Koharu, spoke up.

"That's true. But I think that Orochimaru will strike very soon nonetheless. If anything, being able to strike at Konoha during our Chuunin Finals will speak of bravado, if not strength. As long as he doesn't directly slaughter the nobles during an attack, he won't necessarily earn their ire." Sarutobi explained. He breathed in and turned to the ANBU captain. "It is prudent that we step up our defenses tomorrow. You are dismissed, Captain."

The ANBU leader nodded and the masked ninja vanished. The Hokage turned to the few other jounin who were there as well. "Ibiki, Hayate, have you tracked the internal spies down yet?"

The two jounin appeared from the shadows and bowed towards him. Ibiki stepped up forward first. "We have been tracking the movement of certain people, Hokage-sama. If an attack is imminent tomorrow as you believe, it is safe to say that these potential spies will make their preparatory moves tonight."

"I have assigned ninjas to keep tabs on these suspects, Hokage-sama. I personally will follow up some of our leads myself." Hayate added, coughing once more. "We are fairly sure of a few of these people, but do not know their exact identity. Some of them seem to be quite talented with disguise. Rest assured that we will capture them tonight. Morino will supervise their interrogation, of course."

The Sandaime glanced over at the stone-faced jounin and nodded. "Very well. Dismissed, I wish to be alone for now to think." He looked over at Koharu and Homura, who exchanged a glance with each other before moving off as well. Soon enough, he was alone in his office.

Sarutobi moved off towards the room behind his office and pushed at a panel. The panel led to another hidden path, which he moved along briskly, leading to the secret chamber behind his bedroom. The Hokage tower was full of such passageways, he knew. This one was a very convenient way to moving to and fro from his room to his office, and that only the Hokages and a few others knew.

The panel opened up and he stepped into the small chamber that was itself hidden behind his closet. He looked up at the array of scrolls he had there, most of them special kinjutsu he had worked with or helped with in the past, such as the Nine-Tails Seal with the Yondaime. But besides that was also his old battle gear. The same one he wore about fifteen years ago by now, since he had last confronted Orochimaru.

_Can I face you and deal with you properly this time, Orochimaru?_

The Sandaime closed his eyes as his hand touched the glass case that protected the outfit he had not had to wear for quite some time. Silence grew as he thought back to that time, to the times of long past. Then he sighed softly and reached out to open the latch on the casing. _Why could you not have seen? _

_Baka deshi...

* * *

_

"So, we're done with the check up?" Junzo asked the doctor simply as he released the flow of his chakra to his hands. 

"Yes, we're done. You're in perfect health as far as I can tell." The man nodded at Junzo with a smile on his face. "You're free to go. Just don't push yourself too hard." The man paused as the genin rose from where he was. "It's a shame though..."

_It is a shame..._

The words echoed in his head, the words that Jiten mentioned that day, a week ago. Junzo grit his teeth in annoyance and shook his head. "What?"

"Oh, I mean, it's a shame you aren't in the exams." The medic nin nodded at Junzo. "You seem to be quite strong as a ninja. Its not too obvious, but I can sense the strength of your chakra. I am a medical specialist after all, so detecting the flows and manipulating chakra is quite my field. Your body seems suited to channeling chakra."

"Oh, well I didn't have a team." The genin turned away as he answered simply.

The man shrugged as he fixed his papers. "Well, there's always the next one. Perhaps when winter comes, hmm?"

The genin shrugged and moved outside with a nod of his head. He sighed and moved out of the office to enter the hallway. _Tch, how annoying._ It was doubly so now, now that he felt the shadow of his father behind him. There weren't many who would connect him with one of Konoha's dead heroes, but nonetheless _he_ felt it. Was it a subconscious comparison to the specter of his father whenever his abilities were spoken of? It couldn't be could it? After all, he'd only been brought to that knowledge recently. It was rather ridiculous, he admitted to himself, and decided that it was simply something that was brought on by the stress ofthat daywhen he had been shocked by Jiten.

He blinked as something got into his eye, which he rubbed at. _What?_ He blinked again and looked around him. A cold, menacing atmosphere seemed to descend around him for a while as he moved along the hallway. His hackles rose at the eerie feeling. He could hear a loud sound from far down the corridor as he descended from the stairwell to the ground floor, and the fearsome air seemed to dissipate slowly.

_What was that? My senses...?_ He looked at his hands, clutched into fists. _Was there danger?_ He asked himself, despite the apparent scene of peace in the empty hallway. He shook his head and moved towards the exit, when his sandals stepped on something. Had he not been a ninja, or perhaps, had he not been honing his skills and senses in particular recently he might have missed it. The sound of that faint crunch as he took a step towards the exit might have been missed otherwise.

He knelt down and trailed a finger over the floor to check it. _Hmm? _Junzo rubbed his fingers together. _Is this...sand?_

_Who could have?_ He turned to look around, the fine hairs on his body seeming to rise from a fearsome passing. Or perhaps, from the presence of something of great power having passed here. _Ugh, my mind is playing tricks on me. I should just go and train, yeah...that will help me take my mind of these things._

He patted his pouch to check if the scrolls were there. _Okay, one, two, three. All the scrolls I need are her, okay!_ He nodded to himself and moved off, away from the Konoha Hospital. _Only one more day until the Chuunin Finals, then I can see what those kids can truly do!_

_Shadows on shadows, huh?_

Hayate eyed the small figure in the distance. He had kept track of this one for a while now. He moved with the familiarity of a Konoha native, which disturbed him somewhat. It was clear that he had some sort of genjutsu on him.

_A traitor?_

The thought was disturbing, but regardless of the identity, he was here to keep track of him. _Have to be careful. _He watched the figure move, then turned to glance at the horizon. _Sunset already._ He squinted, and then vanished as he left and shadowed his target.

* * *

"Gaaah!"

Junzo growled as he crossed his arms in front of him, concentrating on maintaining the Kongou no Gotai, the most basic but foundational step to Kyokuken. All around him were rocks and tree trunks cut and shaped carefully, each tied to a rope. The rocks and trucks moved as they swung back and forth and battered into him with force.

_No, not yet!_

It was a simple, but effective way for him to train himself with Kyokuken. Helping him to build up his endurance under the stress of the impacts, as well as forcing him to develop and push to limits of his Kongou no Gotai. He had forced himself on, lasting longer and longer as it went on, despite the multiple impacts.

He felt the shocks, but rather then feel the pain from the hits, he felt them as they struck his armor of chakra. Felt them as they struck, and as their force reverberated against his aura-enhanced skin. Felt them as they struck something as supple as muscle, yet as strong as the bones of the earth at the same time. Felt them as the wood and stone hit him and crack with the force of the impact on something that was simply empowered with more strength then they.

_Ugh! I can't...no! Just a little longer...!_

He grit his teeth as he began to feel the pain, his chakra depleted from it all until he couldn't maintain it any longer and it faded completely from his body. He barely had enough energy to leap away from the assault that had been maintained, rolling away and stopping on the ground. Sekkou appeared quickly enough beside him as he lay on the ground.

The lizard had been more behaved since their meeting with Jiten, though Junzo suspected that it was more of the fact that he already had gotten up to date with much of what had happened with the village then anything else. But he had been kind enough to help Junzo with his training by being the one who was kicking and shoving the rocks and trunks at him. Sekkou stretched out a bit, before he spoke. "Well, that was a bit better considering this is your fifth go...you lasted a full three minutes this time around, even with all the rocks and whatever pummeling you nonstop. Not like that's gonna happen in a real fight, cause you'd be dead anyway afterwards."

"I think I'm done for today, Sekkou. You can go." For the full week he'd been training as hard as he could in mastering the Kongou no Gotai. The best he could have achieved that first night after meeting Jiten was about a minute. But in the days after it had gotten easier. Water-walking practice, a tip he'd gotten from Hayate a bit before that meeting, had come in handy to helping him with this. He hadn't met his sensei since the day he met Jiten, but he made it a point to remember to thank the young jounin when he could.

"Well, I'm off!" The lizard grinned, then leaped away into the trees to meander around Konoha as he was wont to.

_I've gone quite a ways. _Junzo thought on that. He had actually gone quite a way since he first opened the scroll a little more then three weeks ago. Once the three steps to it were gotten though, it was all a matter of getting your body used to it and building your endurance. _Which is seems my body is naturally inclined to doing, thankfully._ He exhaled tiredly after that, but managed to move himself to lean against a tree. He gazed upwards, seeing the hue of red paint the sky.

"Sunset already huh? I've been training since this morning then..." He felt that time hadn't passed too much. Training the Kongou no Gotai under the assault of stone and wood, basic shuriken and kunai accuracy, shadow fighting on the water, and striking practice on the training targets he'd set up for himself to attack while in Kongou no Gotai. He wasn't stupid, and he knew that the technique was both easily implemented to offense as well as defense.

_I just have no idea _how_ it works on offense besides protecting my legs and fists from injury. Though I guess that might be in the second scroll. _He eyed the sealed scroll curiously, as he'd put all three of them out beside his other pouches. He had skipped to the end of it, but discovered that to open the second scroll he had to be able to sustain the aura of the Kongou no Gotai while focusing his chakra on the seal at the same time for a full hour to break the seal. Which was something he wasn't going to be able to do for a while to come, he knew. And so he continued with the variety of exercises listed in the first Kyokuken instructional scroll.

There also was the other scroll of Suiton training techniques, but he never had gotten around to actually practicing those much, since he was more focused on trying to get the Kongou first. _I did break three minutes under stress today though, which is enough for a short and intense match of all action._ He wasn't stupid to think that he could always engage his foe in taijutsu, he wasn't fast enough just yet for that.

Besides the basic genin techniques, the Mikazuki no Mai of Hayate, which wasn't quite useful with Kyokuken he had to admit rather annoyed, and his weak form of Kyokuken, he didn't really have any jutsu he could use. _I guess its better late then never..._ The genin groaned as he sat up to get the scroll. He held it in his hand carefully, then sighed and opened it.

"Let's see now..."

Junzo began reading the scroll, turning on the small portable lamp he'd brought along just in case. He set it beside himself, adjusting it so its light fell on the paper of the scroll cleanly. He sighed and leaned against the tree, closing his eyes. _It really is quite peaceful here._ He thought, the hint of a smile pulling at his face.

"I wonder, what it is about the village that my father died for." He murmured softly. _He died protecting the village, that's undeniable. But what for, what did he treasure here? Did he even treasure anything in Konoha?_ It was a question he'd asked himself lately. His power had gotten strong, he could tell that much. But there had to be a reason for that. _Duty?_ He had been told that duty was his father's main driving force to become stronger. Sekkou, though he was a bit scatterbrained and such, was not a liar.

It seemed like such a solid reason that was true. But Junzo couldn't understand it very well. Of all things, why duty? The genin shook his head at that, deciding to throw his concentration on reading the scroll instead for now. _I can think about such things later, when I get home._ "Let's see these Suiton jutsu..." he mumbled again, thinking out loud.

"First off is the basic control of water elements. A training exercise to mold chakra with the water element, and learn how to move it." He turned to look around to see if there was any body of water nearby, as he was hardly good enough to generate water from sheer force of chakra alone. Fortunately, there was a stream nearby which he could tap for practice. _That will do nicely_. Junzo's hands moved as he made each seal one at a time. _Ox, Boar, Monkey, Rooster!_ He carefully executed each one, channeling his chakra as he performed each seal. "Suiton, Bakufuu no Mizu!"

It was a curious feeling, but as he finished, he could feel the chakra he'd channeled into each seal of the sequence burst into life and he could feel his spirit and chakra connect with the water of the nearby stream that he had focused on, and as his hands released the last seal, he could feel that connection with which he could manipulate and direct the water under his chakra's influence. He breathed in and moved his hand, willing the water to flow in a sudden blast to the opposite side of the stream where he was facing.

The water flow erupted a split second later as a miniscule element of chakra flowed from him to the water, and it moved to his bidding. A burst of water erupted from the stream two feet into the air and a few gallons of water exploded from the stream onto the land where he had channeled it to go. The splash of water soaked the grass and ground on that part of the river, though there wasn't all that much of it.

_Well, not too bad considering I don't practice my Suiton techniques much._ He smiled in relief that it didn't just explode without direction like the first time he'd tried the technique. _Well, I guess I just have to master as much as I can! Yosh!_

Junzo looked up to the full moon in the sky, night having truly come while he had been thinking. He looked at that moon, and a feeling of dread seemed to encompass him. A faint rumbling sound came from past the trees, from one of the outlying buildings of Konoha. As if some force of chaos had sent out ripples of its presence, laughing as its bloodlust had been whetted, and just barely sated.

_Just like that feeling this morning in the hospital..._ He realized. _What could it be? _Then the terrible sensation ended, as if that disruptive force had been sealed away, its presence stifled and bound once again. It took Junzo a few moments before he returned to practicing his jutsu, just for a short while longer, before he headed back home to sleep.

_Monkey, Horse, Rooster, Tiger, Ox, Boar, Monkey, Rooster._

"Suiton, Shuriken no Mizu!"

_Hayate?_ The genin wondered how his sensei was doing.

* * *

**AN: **Greetings all! Thanks for the reviews, very much appreciated. While I am aware that there are those who don't review or whatever for what reason, I urge those who take the extra effort to review to try and put more then a simple "Good Work, Update ASAP" as much as possible. I'm not totally free from that particular failure myself, I've got a few "Great work, update" reviews myself (coughs) but try your best, eh? Also, if you've seen my works, you'll notice that most, if not all, are OC (in various ways) centric, or have an OC as a prime character, or totally throws the canon characters out the window and pushes them into the history and throw in a whole OC cast. You could call it my "specialty" though I might be using that word a bit too freely with myself. In any case, I do hope you guys enjoy, and as always, REVIEW! :) 


End file.
